


Keep Your Friends Close and Your Chisato Closer

by lucybeetle



Category: Denji Sentai Megaranger
Genre: Denial, F/F, Long-Distance Relationship, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 11:03:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8842138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucybeetle/pseuds/lucybeetle
Summary: The Megarangers are making new beginnings, but the distance starts to wear on Miku.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [oryx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oryx/gifts).



> Happy Holidays! I hope you like this! 
> 
> Set just after the TV series, with spoilers for the whole show. I'm sorry this doesn't really go anywhere; but couldn't quite find a way to make it go anywhere, without being overly-cliche. Still, I hope it works as is, and added a little Kenta/Yuusaku in there by way of apology!

It was harder to say goodbye than Miku had expected, in the end.

They’d all been talking about university for months, planning their separate futures. She knew she would cry buckets all the same. Kouichirou had got into his first choice of prestigious university, and Shun into his second. Kenta getting accepted anywhere at all was a surprise; but he _wasn’t_ stupid, not really. He just “didn’t apply himself”, whatever that meant every time their teachers said it. Miku hadn’t done spectacularly in her exams, but she’d done well enough, and that meant that she was starting her degree in design and information technology in the new academic year.

She hadn’t wanted to be like her friend Hiroko, a year above at school, who had failed most of her exams and was working in a petrol station last time Miku heard from her. Miku also hadn’t wanted to take her grandmother’s advice of attending a two-year women’s college.

“Don’t you think it’s safer than having her living among all those boys?” Grandma had said, to Miku’s parents. “She’ll still get a perfectly good job.” Miku _could_ have got a good job after attending a two-year college, if she’d wanted to be a dietician or a nursery teacher or something; but she didn’t. It wasn’t the 1970s any more. She had no intention of doing a “ladylike” job for a short time and then quitting to get married. She wanted to study at a proper university and have a career, like Shun and Kouichirou and Kenta and Chisato.

She was going to miss them; Chisato most of all.

Miku sniffled, Kenta wailed noisily into a handkerchief, Shun glowered, Kouichirou stared down at the floor and Chisato stood calmly. She was not smiling, but composed, like when she was waiting in line during their final exams. She would be sad to leave her friends, though. Miku was sure of that. One didn’t just go through a year like the Megarangers had and come out of it without forming any kind of lasting bonds.

“I’ll email. And I’ll take lots of pictures, of course,” said Chisato. “It’s not _that_ far away anyway.” (It was, actually. Miku had looked up the exact duration and distance of a flight to Australia.)

“What about visiting?” Miku said. She knew how much the plane tickets would cost as well. It was completely out of her own price range, but Chisato’s parents might pay for her to fly home at New Year or during the summer break.

Chisato opened her mouth to answer, but then Kenta yelled “I’M GONNA MISS YOU!” and leaped into her arms. He dragged Miku after him, and then Kouichirou shuffled across to join them, and somehow Shun got pulled in as well.

“It’s really not that far. Don’t _cry_ , Kenta,” said Chisato, from somewhere between Shun’s shoulder and Kouichirou’s armpit. “Now look, you’re making Miku start.”

***

On the balance of things, Miku liked university better than school.

No one from her old class was on her degree course; or at her university at all, as far as she was aware. They didn’t expect her to be late or slow or not know the answer. Teachers didn’t make a point of calling on her when they could see that she didn’t understand something. Not everyone was friendly, but she’d found a small group of people to study with and sometimes hang out with after tutorials. She hoped that some of them would become proper friends, but even if not, it wasn’t like she would have no one. Her friends were still there.

They all emailed her, once a week or so. Kenta had phoned once or twice. Miku had _tried_ to phone Shun, but the connection wasn’t great, and he’d got impatient and snapped at her down the line because he couldn’t hear her well. She’d considered trying to call Chisato, too; then decided against it. It would be expensive, even with an international phone card, and Chisato was probably too busy.

It was difficult to try to picture Chisato’s life now. There were beaches in the photos she sent, plants and buildings that Miku didn’t recognise, street signs in English; but otherwise, it didn’t look all that unfamiliar or remarkable. Miku, whose only knowledge of Australia was exotic images of koalas and kangaroos, was a little disappointed. She’d asked lots of questions in her emails, between her own lengthy descriptions of her classes and friends and new surroundings and bands and everything else in her life. Chisato’s responses had been almost as detailed, at first, and then after a month or so they got shorter and shorter. Now, she usually responded with a couple of lines at best. At least there were always photos.

It was autumn where Chisato was, despite being almost summer in Japan. Australia was in the southern hemisphere, so all the seasons were backwards, yet it still seemed to be sunny in every picture. Chisato was in some of them, possibly taken by new friends or people on her photography course. The bright sunshine illuminated her face; highlighting the curve of her smile and the spark of life that shone behind her eyes. She seemed to be very happy there. Miku wondered whether everything in Australia were really that amazing or if Chisato were just relieved to be away from her old life.

When Miku checked her computer there was already a new message, with new pictures. She didn’t want to look at them. She began typing a reply instead.

 _Dear Chisato. Thank you for sending some more photos. I’m studying for my end of year exams. The library is always full and I got in trouble last week for almost spilling my milkshake in there, lucky I’ve got two books I really needed checked out until the end of the month_ –

She saved it in her Drafts folder and shut down the computer. In retrospect, hearing about Miku’s day to day life and classes was just a little bit boring. It was probably no surprise that Chisato seemed to have lost interest in writing back.

***

Miku didn’t have many plans for her winter break, apart from New Year with her family and a couple of visits to friends. Kouichirou was already home for the holidays; and Shun would be coming back too, at some point. She had already arranged to meet Kenta, who still lived at home. He was going to try to bring Yuusaku. Yuusaku’s name came up a lot in Kenta’s conversation, now. It made sense they were spending more time together, since he was Kenta’s only other close friend who hadn’t moved away for college. Miku was glad they were getting to know each other better although a night out with _both_ of them might be a little tiring.

Kouichirou invited her over and they spent a companionable afternoon watching old movies together. Miku had missed him, though she wasn’t as close to him as she had been to Chisato or Kenta. He seemed to be getting on well at his exclusive school, though by his own admission he hadn’t really made any new friends yet. Miku confessed that she hadn’t, either; and told him a little more about what she was up to.

“You seem to be getting along well with Chisato,” he said, when Miku complained that Chisato never talked to her any more.

“Well, she doesn’t really say anything. Like I explained.”

“She emails you every day, though. I’ve only heard from her a couple of times," said Kouichirou.

“Have you?” said Miku. That was unusual. She’d always thought that he and Chisato were best friends. Hearing that Chisato was talking to _her_ more often gave Miku an unexpectedly giddy feeling, “It’s just photos. Here, I’ll show you if you like.”

Miku brought up her email account and let him glance through Chisato’s photos with her. She’d looked at them all many times herself, of course; but Kouichirou took a long time to browse through the pictures. He smiled at a scene of Chisato on a mountain-climbing trip, “She looks like she’s having fun.”

“Yeah,” said Miku. A little too much fun, if you asked her.

 “What is it?” said Kouichirou.

“Nothing,” said Miku. He frowned, and she added “I just wish Chisato would write a little more. She never actually tells me anything. She just sends photos.”

“Of course she does,” said Kouichirou. He pointed at Miku’s own words on the screen, “You always put stuff like, ‘I love your pictures,’ ‘Can you show me this?’ She’s just trying to do what you asked.”

When Miku got home, her mother had taken a message from Shun, who had called while Miku was out – “Something about Thursday next week?”

Thursday was Christmas Eve, so Miku would have been free; she wasn’t doing anything until New Year, a week later. She meant to phone him back, but then she got distracted and forgot all about it until it was three days later and too late to return the call. Anyway, it wasn’t like he’d made any effort to remind her. Whatever he was calling about couldn’t have been that important.

It was disappointing, really. Spending Christmas on her own sucked. A TV-perfect Christmas Eve, with dinner at an expensive restaurant and then a romantic walk or dancing, had been her dream since her first year of middle school but she seemed to have zero chance of anyone asking her. Grandma, having not got her wish to send Miku to a ladies’ college, was now encouraging her to marry a computer programmer because it was an “up-and-coming field” with “prospects.” Personally, Miku thought that she preferred the idea of someone with creative interests. Maybe an artist of some description.

***

“Aren’t you going to call her?” said Miku's mother.

“Later,” said Miku. Her parents had a phone plan for overseas calls, so she really had no excuse; but now she was feeling too shy to dial Chisato’s number. She wasn’t even sure she still had it. Chisato had given her the number, a while back, but it was buried in her emails somewhere. She worried she might have accidentally deleted it, even though she had never ever deleted anything Chisato sent.

“You have to thank her for remembering your birthday!” Miku’s mother smoothed down her daughter’s hair. “Don’t be too late back for dinner.”

Miku’s birthday was actually on Tuesday, when she had classes, so she was spending the weekend at home instead. She’d arrived to find an air-mailed package, containing a birthday card and a cute koala-shaped soap and several boxes of something called Tim Tams. These seemed to be chocolate cookies, much bigger than those usually sold in Japan. Miku would share them with Kenta, with whom she was hanging out later. He never said no to cookies or indeed any other kind of snack.

They were happily playing video games and had polished off two packets of Tim Tams between them when Kenta said “I asked Yuusaku out, by the way.”

Miku spat out a mouthful of chocolate honeycomb and coughed. Kenta hit her hard on the back, which hurt a lot, but at least solved the choking problem.

“Congratulations, I guess,” said Miku. She wanted to be happy for him, though the whole thing struck her as rather weird. She’d had no idea Kenta was into guys, and of course Yuusaku was a lot older.

“He said yes. We’re going to a comics convention in two weeks’ time.”

“What do your parents think?” said Miku. She couldn’t imagine what her own parents would say, if she brought another girl home. Maybe it wouldn’t be a big deal. It wouldn’t be as if Miku were pregnant or taking drugs. They might be OK with it, especially if they knew the girl well. A friend of Miku’s, maybe; someone her parents had met and trusted. Preferably someone a little more sensible than Hiroko from the petrol station.

“I dunno.” Kenta shrugged, “I haven’t said anything. It’s only one date. Anyway, I don’t think they care. They’re always saying they want me to be happy.”

Miku said, “Why Yuusaku?” because even without taking into account the age difference, he was _Yuusaku._ Then again, Kenta was Kenta. That probably explained a lot about why they appealed to each other.

“I like him. Isn’t that why you ask anybody out?” said Kenta. “Sometimes, you just gotta go for it. You know what I mean?” He winked.

Miku shook her head.

“Yeah, you do. Don’t pretend like you don’t have your eye on someone! Who do you think you keep talking about and emailing me about and making big googly eyes and …”

“You’re an idiot,” said Miku. Did he think she’d be here if she were in love with someone? She’d be out on the town for a romantic birthday celebration.

“That reminds me,” said Kenta, “I almost forgot your birthday present. Here.”

Kenta wouldn’t mind if she opened it in front of him. This took a while, since he’d used almost an entire roll of sellotape to wrap her gift. He’d bought her several rolls of film for a Polaroid camera, which was nice, except that she didn’t own one.

“I don’t have a Polaroid,” said Miku.

“Oh, yeah. I forgot. Sorry about that.” Kenta scratched his head, “You can borrow one, can’t you? You should take some photos to show your parents when you go back to college. And I bet Chisato would like to see them.”

Miku wanted to hear it from Chisato herself; so she did make that call, in the end.


End file.
